Author's Note

Slight gore after the line break, you have been warned.

Chapter 10*

Selene’s POV:

I watched as Jack left with Dash and AJ to go off to the everfree forest to let Jack cool down and let the news about Joel sink in. I sighed as I helped pick up some of the trash that went everywhere from Jack kicking the garbage can earlier. After that was done I took a seat on the waiting bench while the princesses conversed with the doctor and how everything would be paid for by them. Fluttershy and Rarity decided to seat next to me while Twilight tried to talk Pinkie out of throwing Joel a ‘get better soon’ party.

“Are you okay darling?” Rarity asked and I looked over to see she had a worried face and I sighed.

“I’ll be fine. I just need some time to let this all sink in is all.” I said as I tried to put on a smile.

“Well if it helps any, you and Jack can always come to me for help if anything ever comes up.” She said as she placed a hoof on my shoulder.

“Thanks Rarity, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.” I replied as I leaned back against the wall and let out a long sigh.

“Do you have any idea what happened to Joel that made him go crazy like that?” Fluttershy asked rather boldly to my surprise.

“No not really, no.” I muttered and she frowned a bit at that answered.

“Well let’s try and find out why.” She said and me and rarity gave her a questioning look. “Well think about it. If we can find out what made him go crazy like that we might be able to find a way to help him.”

“Well it’s a nice theory Shy, but I don’t think finding out what made him go insane will help us out since he’s in a coma right now.” I said sighing.

“Actually…” Twilight’s voice chimed in and we looked over to see her thinking hard about something. “That may just actually work…”

“How?” I asked.

“Well the doctor did say his coma was mentally induced, which means he’ll probably only come out of it when what’s wrong with him mentally is fixed. If we find out what happened to him mentally we might be able to find out how to help him using advanced magic.” She said and looked over to the other two princesses.

“We do not see a problem with theory. However, should the solution to his problem have a chance to be lethal we do not approve of the use of these methods.” Celestia said as Luna gave a confirming nod before looking at me.

“Selene you know the world Krieg is from the most out of anyone of us present. When Krieg goes through his transformation what happens in his world?” Luna asked and I thought for a minute.

“Well aside from the physical transformations I can’t really say for certain what happens aside from a changing set of dialog when he starts to transform.” I said sighing as I tried to think.

“What are some of the things he says when he transforms? Perhaps there is a clue in what he says?” Twilight asked and I thought hard to try and recall every line Krieg said in the game.

“Let’s see. There was “I can’t take it.”, “Gotta think big.”, "I've got a huge hand", and sometimes his old perso-!" I paused as I began to remember something about Krieg that had escaped my mind since we came here. ‘His old personality!’

“What is it Selene? Did you figure something out?” Fluttershy asked hopefully. I snapped out of my deep thinking.

“Okay I just remembered something important. In Krieg’s world, Krieg as an old personality, a version of himself before he became insane. He's almost like concision that kept him from killing everything in sight.” I explained and everyone gave a look of surprise, even the princesses.

“So it’s kind of like Krieg and Joel now but somebody else instead of Joel?” Rarity asked and I shook my head.

“Not exactly. The old personality that was inside Krieg’s head didn’t have anywhere near as much control as Joel does over Krieg. It was more like he was only a voice in Krieg’s head that threatened him if he did anything wrong.”

“I see, but pray tell what this has to do with helping the current situation?” Luna asked and frowned a bit.

“Well, in the game when Krieg transformed, the old personality and him became one, almost as if they fused together.”

“If that’s true, then Joel fused with Krieg while he was transformed.” Twilight said as her legs began to shake and I could see a bit of fear in her eyes. “Then he would have experienced everything Krieg experienced in the span of a few seconds.”

“I don’t think I need to explain how, unpleasant something like that would be.” I said as I gave off a shiver myself. “If this is the case we really are lucky that we didn’t end up with another Krieg.” I said frowning as I looked to the two princess sisters. “Do you think we can help him with this?” I asked and Luna nod.

“I believe so, but there is no guarantee that what I have in mind will work. But I am also more than certain that what I have in mind will not cause any harm to his mind.” She said as she began to head for the emergency room where Joel was in.

“Sister, what is it you plan to do?” Celestia asked and Luna stopped to look back at her with a smile.

“I’m going to find Krieg’s old personality and awaken him. If I can awaken him he may be able to help Joel recover mentally.” She said and I gave her a puzzled look.

“But I thought you couldn’t enter someone’s mind if they’re unconscious. “

“True, but he’s not unconscious now is he? He is in a coma, which is a defensive state of sleep one can enter.” She said smiling as she got to the door and looked to Celestia. “If I do not come back within an hour do not come in looking for me.” She said as she went through the door and everyone looked over to Celestia.

“As you wish, dear sister…” She said softly with a sigh before returning her attention to us. “Come, there is nothing more we can do here. I’m sure most of you have better things to spend your time on rather than sitting here with a sad face on.” She said smiling as she started walking towards the exit and I began to follow.

“Princess Celestia, what did Luna mean by not going in looking for her?” I asked and she sighed.

“My sister and I poses the ability to enter a sleeping subjects mind and search through their collective thoughts and desires. She does not want me or anyone else going in to your friends mind in case something goes amiss.” She explained as we reached the front door to find two royal guards running full speed towards us.

“Your highness! News from Canterlot! It’s under attack by changelings!” One of them yelled out to us and just about everyone gasped.

“How are our defenses holding?!” Celestia asked as she immediately met them half way.

“Last we heard the guard is holding strong. All civilians have been moved to secured shelters and the changeling’s offensive number were dwindling and we fear they may bring in reinforcements.” He said as the rest of us join them.

“I see, send word to the guard to hold them off as long as they can, I shall return with the bearers of the elements of harmony as soon as we can.” She said and the guards gave a salute and ran off the way they came. “I’m afraid we shall have to leave for Canterlot at once, Twilight go get the elements and find Rainbow Dash and Applejack and make for canterlot as soon as you find them.” She said looking to twilight who gave a quick nod and ran off with her friends.

“What should I do Princess?” I asked since I couldn’t exactly stand by and do nothing right now.

“I must ask that you remain her Selene.” She said as she turned her attention to me.

“But your majesty, I can help, I can fight just as well as anyone on the guard!” I protested but she shook her head.

“You misunderstand Selene, I want you to stay here and protect my sister.” She said and it clicked in my head. “While she explores your friends mind she is vulnerable to attack. So please, protect my sister for me, I am entrusting her safety with you because I know what you are capable of.” She said and I sighed but nodded.

“I understand your highness.” I said as I watched her take off and I returned to the hospital. “Man this sucks…” I groaned as I found my way back to the emergency room and opened the door to find Joel laying in a hospital bed with Luna leaning over him, their foreheads connected with her horn glowing. Looking around I took notice that no one else was here so I took a seat on the hospital bed next to the one Joel and Luna were on.

I sighed as I looked through all the gear I had on hand. I had my shotgun attached to my back and a pistol on one side of my hip. On the other side of my hip I had a pack of three grenades and my Omni-tool on my arm, but I still didn’t exactly know how to operate it. I figured I was more than prepared for simple guard duty like this. Shortly after I had finished assessing my equipment Jack came into the room, Keyblade in hand and a smirk on his face that sent a shiver down my spine.

“What are you so smug about?” I asked and his grin widened.

“Oh nothing much.” He said as he extended his hand and a burst of fire erupted from his palm. “Just that I learned how to use my powers is all.” He said as the flames turned to an icy crystals and fell to the ground, shattering into powdery snow. “So what did I miss?” He asked and I sighed as I explained everything that happened after he left, include Luna’s plan to help Joel and the attack on Canterlot.

“So we’re stuck here on guard duty until Luna comes back from whatever it is she is doing.” I finished as Jack laid down on the hospital bed across from me.

“Well this shouldn’t be too hard right? I mean look around, nobody’s here.” He said chuckling and I frowned.

“I know, that’s what bothers me. This is supposed to be an emergency room of a hospital. Where are all the nurses and doctors?” I pointed out and Jack sat up on the bed he was on.

“Out to lunch?”

“Really Jack? That’s what you’re going to go with? They’re all out eating lunch while patients are lying in beds sick?” I groaned and glared at me.

“Well excuse me for trying to think positive reasons why they’re not here.” He said crossing his arms.

“Just because it’s positive doesn’t make it anymore true or right. Go see if you can find the doctor or anybody for that matter.” I said and groaned before getting up and opening the door, stopping halfway through the doorway.

“Um Selene, what do Changelings look like?” He asked and I thought on how to describe them.

“Um, black ponies with bug wings with holes in their legs and a horn on their head. Why?” I asked as he closed the door and looked back to me.

“Well, there’s about ten of them crawling around outside the door right now…” He said as he backed up from the door slowly. “I don’t think they saw me though, so it might be a good idea to block the door. Right now.” I jumped off my bed and pulled my pistol from my hip.

“Use the empty beds, we gotta keep Luna safe while she’s doing this.” I said as I aimed at the door, ready to fire if anything came in.

“Yeah tell me something I don’t know genius.” Jack retorted as he picked up one of the empty bed cots and placed it in front of the door. “So why exactly are these guys attacking again?” He asked as he went to get another bed.

“I’m guessing they want payback for what happened during the Canterlot wedding episodes, where they were they failed to invade Canterlot by having their Queen pose as princess Cadence. I guess they Queen has developed a taste for vengeance.” I explained as Jack piled on the second bed.

“But if they’re attacking Canterlot right now then why are they here?”

“I’m guessing they’re looking for Luna, if they remove her from the picture then victory is almost guaranteed.”

“Well what about the other princesses?” Jack asked as he piled on the third bed.

“Well Cadence is in the crystal empire right now so it’ll take them a while to come all the way back here I guess. Twilight can’t really do much without her friends and the elements of harmony and Celestia was already beaten once by the Queen. So the only real threat they face is Luna and Twilight and her friends.” I said as there was a bang on the door.

“Looks like we’ve been found out…” Jack said as he grabbed his Keyblade and backed away from the door.

“You sound worried. Scared?” I teased as I readied myself as there was another loud bang against the door.

“Please, I could handle these guys all by myself.” He boasted as there was another loud bang against the door and the top bed feel off the pile. We could both hear the hissing of a mass of changelings on the other side.

“You sure you know how to control your powers completely?” I as the door was hit again, the second bed fell from the pile.

“Yeah, more or less.”

“So glad I got put with you…” I mumbled as the door was busted open, on the other side was about ten or fifteen changelings ready to pour in. Jack’s free hand ignited with fire.

“Let’s do this.”

Joel’s POV:

Blackness. An empty void of pure nothingness as far as the eye could see. I had no Idea where the hell I was or what the hell happened, last thing I remember I was fighting bandits in Celestia’s spell simulator. Now I was floating around in this void. I tried to look around but found that my body wouldn’t move no matter how much I tried to move it. I gave out a long sigh as I simply waited seeing as I couldn’t move at all so there wasn’t much else I could do.

Thankfully I didn’t have to wait long. It was small, but I could see a small light in the far off distance and it began to crawl closer to me. As it got closer and closer I could make out figures in the bright light, they weren’t anything more than black shadows on the white glowing light until they got closer. When the white light with shadows on it took up half of my vision I could begin to hear voices.

“What’s the code for Liar’s Berg’s fast travel station you damn bandit scum!” I male voice yelled out.

“Alright, alright, the code is… GO FUCK YOURSELF!” A female voice shouted back before she let out a high pitched wail of pure agony as if she was being hurt. By now, the white light had taken up all of my vision and the shadows formed into people and objects but I still couldn’t see faces. The source of the female voice seemed to be laying on a table with a machine jabbing at her while the source of the male voice stood next to her.

“Tut tut tut, language.” The male voice said before the male shadows looked over to me as the machine powered down and the female voice’s screaming stopped and she began breathing heavily. “Now then, I hope you can learn from your wife’s mistake.” He said as he moved from the table the girl was on, my vision following the male shadow as he came over to me, bringing me face to face with a similar machine that was above the girl. “Now tell me, what’s that goddamned code?!” He yelled.

“Hehehe, she told you already, go fuck yourself, John.” A male voice came from me and the male shadow growled.

“I’m only going to ask one more time bandit. What is the code?!” I spat in his face with a smirk as he quickly backed off and wiped my spit out of his eye. “Why you little..!” The shadow yelled as he came back over to me and jammed two fingers into my right eye. I screamed loudly as I felt his fingers move in my eye socket until they wrapped around my eyeball and he yanked it out. I could feel the blood pouring out of my now gaping eye socket as I tried to pull my arms up, finding that they were being held down by straps.

“See what happens when you fuck with me bandit?! I gave you a chance but now you forced my hand. Jimmy!” The male shadow yelled as my now halved vision looked over to see another shadow join the other one.

“It’s Jeffery sir.” The new shadow said as the other shadow threw my eye back at my face.

“Put these two on the war soldier experiment testing line. We’ll see if injecting these bandits full of eridium doesn’t force them to cough up the code…among other things.” The male shadow said as he began walking away. “Make sure they stay conscious throughout the entire process!” He yelled back as the sound of door opened and closed and the new figure moved over to me.

“Why didn’t you just give him the code? You could have spared yourself this.” The shadow said.

“Bullshit. That jackass would have killed us anyway so fuck off.” The female voice said, her breath still heavy from whatever the machine did to her.

“Well yes, but it would have been a lot less painful then what you’re about to be put through.” The male figure said before he looked over to me. “May whatever gods there are have mercy on both of you.” He said and my vision faded to black but the pain of a missing eye still remained.

“What the fuck was that?!” I thought as the pain of a missing left eye radiated intensely as another white light began to engulf my vision, again shadows surrounded me as well as a massive machine over my head.

“War experiment subject number six.” A female voice said as the machine above me began to hum as a large needle extended from a mechanical arm and positioned it’s self at my right arm. “Commencing eridium injection phase one.” The female voice said as the needle pierced my arm and I let out a howl of pain as I struggled to move, but like before I had been strapped down. After the needle was in I could feel it inject something into me that set my skin ablaze with pain. My arm felt like it was on fire and being eaten from the inside out by a million parasites all at once.

“Commencing phase two.” The figure said as another needle pierced my left arm this time and the process repeated for that arm. Then my legs, my chest, and finally my neck. “Commencing injection number six, total eridium amount injected into subject, six liters.” The voice said as the sixth needle injected into my neck earning another howl of pain from me. Out of all six of needles the last one was by far the most painful. The liquid flowed straight to my head and the inside of my skull burned like hellfire. My brain felt like it was going to split in two as I struggled to get free.

“Secure his restraints!” A voice yelled before my struggling finally paid off and the straps that were holding me down finally ripped apart and I knocked the needles away.

“Subject is lose! Code red! I say again code red!” A male voice yelled as I got up and punched one of the figures out of my way as I began to run. My body burned like hell with every muscle movement, even breathing caused me extreme pain, but I didn’t care, I just had to get away from here. Soon my vision faded to black again but the pain in my body never went away.

“No more…” I whimpered. “…No more…” as I began to hold myself as I shook in pure fear and agony as the pain in my body finally subsided to a simple tingling sensation after what felt like eternity. But the the pain was still a clear memory that i couldn't forget no matter how hard i tried.

~~“Joel! You’re okay Joel! It’s all over! You’re fine!”~~ A voice yelled out to me, looking up I could only see a black shadowy figure reaching out for me.

“STAY AWAY!” I screamed as I punched the figure back as I began moving back till I was up against a wall. “STAY AWAY FROM ME!! I WON’T LET YOU HURT US!!” I screamed as I grabbed hold of something and began swinging it around as I looked to see more figures gathered around the one I punched.

~~“What in tarnation is wrong with him?!”~~

~~“The force fields are down shoot him before he gets away!”~~

~~“Princess Celestia what do we do?!”~~

~~“Stop him! We can’t let the subject break out of the facility!”~~

~~“Tia we have no time to waste! We must incapacitate him, he’s only a danger to everyone like this!”~~

~~“Shoot to kill! I say again shoot to kill!”~~ Voices blared in my head at a volume that made my head hurt and felt like my ears were on fire with no sign of stopping.

“So much screaming, always the screaming, stop the screaming! No more! No more screaming!” I screamed as I shook violently as I felt my mind beginning to snap.

“He’s not a danger to anypony, he’s just trying to protect himself because he’s scared. Isn’t that right Joel.” A soft voice said that brought me back slightly as I looked to see another shadowy figure approach me.

“STAY AWAY FROM US!!” I screamed as I began swinging whatever was in my hand at the figure, only for the figure to dissipate like a cloud of smoke and reform again in front of me. I kept swinging over and over at the figure until my arm finally gave out on me and I was breathing heavily. My body ached with pain I never thought possible and it felt like my lungs were about to explode. The figure soon began walking towards me again and I forced my arm up again. “STAY AWAAAAAY!!!” I screamed as swung at the figure one more time, only to hit nothing and I felt something holding me.

“Shh, it’s okay Joel, you’re okay now, I’m here, we’re all here for you.” The soft voice cooed in my ear as I tried to struggle out of the hold it had me in. Soon however I found that the pain in my body slowly faded to the figures touch as it touched my back softly. The figure was holding me in a gentle embrace, one that soothed all the pain in my body as I stop swinging what was in my hand. Looking to the figure my vision turned back to normal and I could see a yellow face, pink hair that fell perfectly to one side of her face, and her deep teal eyes that were filled with care and compassion.

“Flu-Fluttershy…?” I choked out as my memory cleared and I realized what was going on. My hand was clenched around the buzz axe and Fluttershy was holding me in a gentle hug. Looking past Fluttershy I could see everyone else in the library along with Jack who now had a bloody nose.

“Oh god…what was I trying to do…” I thought as my hand trembled before I dropped the buzz axe in my hand and I quickly embraced Fluttershy as I began to wail into her hair. “I’m so sorry…sorry…so sorry…sorry…” I cried as tears poured from my eye and empty eye socket behind the mask I had on. I continued to cry for what felt like an eternity until my vision faded back to black and I once again returned to the void of blackness.

“Hey kid...” I voice called out to me in the blackness. “Kid? You okay.” My eyes slowly opened to find that I was floating in space, similar to when Luna came to me in my dreams. “Good you’re awake.” The voice said from behind me making me turn to see Krieg floating there behind me.

“Krieg…” I asked and he chuckled.

“Hehe, close enough.”